Welcome to the new EAASM website

Contact us at enquiries@eaasm.eu to share your experiences of buying medicines online, or receiving medicines from your pharmacist which have seemed out of the ordinary.

The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) is an independent, pan-European initiative dedicated to protecting patient safety by ensuring access to safe and legitimate medicines. The Alliance was formed by a cross-section of European stake-holders from a variety of backgrounds. Its key activities include campaigning for the safer use of unlicensed or off-label medicines and also the exclusion of counterfeit and substandard medicines from the supply chain, raising public awareness around such issues, and promoting effective legislation and enforcement in relation to falsified medicines. For a leaflet summarising the EAASM's activities and achievements click here

On this website you will find a wealth of information about counterfeit and substandard medicines. Our top tips section will help you to reassure yourself that the prescription medicine you are buying is genuine. Our news section will provide you with the latest news on counterfeit medicines in Europe and around the world as well as updates about the EAASM activities. The EAASM constantly updates and adds useful resources to the website so you can get as much information as possible about obtaining safe medicines.

Latest News

From 1st July online suppliers of medicines in the EU must be registered in the country they are operating.They also need to display on every page of their website offering medicines for sale, the new European common logo.

To mark this occasion a debate took place in the EU Parliament to raise awareness of the issue of patient safety and buying medicine online.

Despite the efforts of USP and other pharmacopeias to establish strong pharmaceutical quality standards worldwide, the problem of counterfeit medicines and the illegal online drug sellers that peddle these dangerous products is urgent and rampant.

Illegal Internet drug sellers often operate overseas, from countries such as Russia, China, India, Mauritius, and Turkey, and mask their identities to prevent detection by law enforcement. Many illegal drug sellers generate tens of millions of dollars annually—often avoiding prosecution by exploiting the global anonymity the Internet provides.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced on June 18th that £15.8 million worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and devices have been seized in the UK as part of a global operation.

The seizures are a result of a month-long international crackdown on the illegal internet trade of medical products that yielded £51.6 million worth of items from 115 different countries globally.